Ryan stares at the city like he’s talking to himself. “Every night, I’d pass him while walking my dog. No matter which way I’d walk, he always seemed to take the path that crossed mine. He’d nod, and that was it.”

“You live by me,” I whisper.

Ryan shrugs his left shoulder, not confirming or denying it.

“One night, we ended up at a light, waiting for it to change. Without looking at me, he told me where I could find him if I ever wanted to ‘do something about it.’ He wasn’t specific, but he didn’t need to be. I knew exactly what he was talking about.”

Ryan turns toward me. The city lights catch his eyes, turning them silver beneath the lip of his cap. “He risked his life by approaching me. For all he knew, I could’ve turned him over to the Swarm and had him killed the next day. I never figured out why he trusted me or how he knew who I was.”

His gaze holds such intensity. I lean in like some magnetic pull is drawing me toward him. The air buzzes with it, like yesterday, when he held my ankle, pulled the glass out of my foot.

My dad had razor-sharp instincts. I trusted his decisions, relied on them. And for whatever reason, he believed in Ryan.

“How long have you been following me?”

It’s a silly question. Still, I watch his eyes like his response matters.

“I check in on you.”

The wind picks up, blowing more strands of hair across my face. Ryan stares at a wisp caught on my lip. Pinned beneath his gaze, I do nothing to move it.

“Two years,” he says.

A few days ago, that might have scared me. But seeing how far the Swarm goes to cover themselves complicates things. If my dad meant as much to him as he claims—I would have done the same had I been in his place.

“How is your dad involved?” I ask.

Ryan’s quiet. Minutes pass, and I wonder if he’s stopped talking. Or maybe he’s searching for the best way to tell me his dad runs the whole thing.

“My dad did something illegal,” he says at last.

Adrenaline pumps in through my veins, making me alert, desperate.

“The Swarm used it as blackmail. Either my parents would go to jail or end up dead, or I’d participate.”

My shoulders drop as I slowly accept what that means. If he’s telling the truth, if he knows the truth, his dad isn’t in charge. “And your parents were okay with that?”

“They don’t know.”

I think of everything my mom doesn’t know and the rift that’s caused between us. I wonder if he feels as alone as I do sometimes.

“They blackmail others?” Amy London. It has to be the same for her too.